that was in 1965, long before the TV show, Roots. The information from that assignment only went back to a few g-grandparents and gg-grandparents. But it was useful for going back much farther once the Internet and genealogy websites came into existence.
That town in Poland you can't find might still exist. If it was a small village, it might not show up on some maps. Since Poland's borders changed throughout history, it.might have gone by a Russian or German name on old maps.
My grandfather told me the German names of the 2 villages that his parents came from, along with the name of the German district. But I was never able to find them on a map. I looked online, using a university library computer. The librarian offered to help me. She was from Germany and had learned about the various divisions of the old German Empire in her school and college studies so when I mentioned the district name and the year that they left for America, she quickly located a map for that region and time period. Voila!! The tiny villages that I was looking for were there.
Then a search for those villages in modern Poland gave me the Polish names.
If you know the general region in Poland for the village or town that you are looking for, and the time period, that will help you know whether you're looking for a Russian, Polish, or German name.
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